Blizzard needs to learn from Disneyland.

[Shiftyshifty]

At Disneyland, they purposely increase the estimated times you wait in lines for a ride. Why? To displace any dissapointment you would have from waiting in said line if it takes longer than the REAL estimated time, which it sometimes does. They know this could ruin some peoples daysif they are constantly being lied to about wait times as some families like to plan thier day out.

It's been a long time since I have been dissapointed by Blizzards estimated time that servers go live after a patch day, I now know to add 3-5 additional hours to those estimations for most patch days. But what about the people that make it a point to be home to play right when the servers come back up? Some of these patches are quite exciting, so I can understand if someone cuts out of work early, comes home from hanging out with friends a bit earlier than planned, ect. I can understand the frustrations and dissapointment of those players to come home only to wait 3-5 additional hours to enjoy thier hobby.

Why doesn't Blizzard just over estimate? Just tell us that its a big patch, and there will likely be problems implimenting it so don't expect servers to be back up until 3pm, or even 5pm PST. Stop setting expectations that you fail to hit time and time again, it can't be good for business. Right now you might not have to worry about that, but your failure to live up to your expectations every couple of tuesdays will definitley stay in the back of everyones minds when and if a real competitor in the market ever arises. This could be fixed with over estimating, Disney's doing well.

This. I tried to say this in another thread but not as eloquently.

[CaptainArlong]

Haven't been playing WoW very long have you? This is something one familiar comes to expect from Blizzard. A major patch hits WoW, you're not playing until 8pm, no matter what their schedule says. This isn't their fault, I'm not saying it's bad, these things take time and they work very hard to get it up and running. You should, after 6 years of WoW, expect this.

[Raol]

I would rather have them FIX and OPEN the ride on time ... You paid close to $100 for a fucking ticket and rides are closed? I'd fucking sue them if they wouldn't refund me the money in situation like that ...
but who cares to sue Blizz over some $15 a month ...

When you pay for the ticket you're accepting that rides can go down unexpectedly. Read the fine print on the ticket when you go in. It's like with Blizzard's TOS, game content is subject to change and servers are subject to go down for maintenance without warning.

I worked at an amusement park, rides go down all the time. They will comp you somehow if you complain enough though haha. I remember this one guy lost his sunglasses on a ride, even though they warn you before going on the ride to remove loose articles. This guy went to guest services like 10 times throughout the day til they brought the ride down for like 10 minutes just to find his sunglasses, AND he got a free buffet meal ticket.

But ya they never actually say how long a ride is going to be down for or when it's expected to be back up or anything like that. You're trained to just tell them it'll be fixed as soon as possible and perhaps they'd like to try some of the nearby attractions and check back later.

God I hated working at an amusement park haha.

[Xexer]

Why doesn't Blizzard just over estimate? Just tell us that its a big patch, and there will likely be problems implimenting it so don't expect servers to be back up until 3pm, or even 5pm PST. Stop setting expectations that you fail to hit time and time again, it can't be good for business. Right now you might not have to worry about that, but your failure to live up to your expectations every couple of tuesdays will definitley stay in the back of everyones minds when and if a real competitor in the market ever arises. This could be fixed with over estimating, Disney's doing well.

Why don't YOU overestimate? Seriously. Why do you not think to yourself "Man...patch day. Blizzard says noon. I'll chill till later, it's prolly going to be down anyway"?

If you cut out of work early or stop hanging with friends to check out a WoW patch you have an issue. Yeah it's exciting to see new stuff, but you haven't learned from the past, and you're losing out on things because of it (pay, social interactions, friend respect, etc). Stop placing the blame on Blizzard and do yourself a favor: Figure out that patch days are as good as no-play days.

[Cocoa]

it must be even more frustrating to know you were going to be frustrated today, weeks ago. oh hey, in a couple months, 4.1 will be coming out, just be prepared ok? oh yea, i'd like to add, it'll be a Tuesday, so you can really plan for it.

[OnlineSamantha]

Because then people would just log on at the estimated time.

For example, let's say they estimated 5 PM, but they came up at 3 PM. That's 2 hours where people don't know the servers are actually back up and running.

[Mortavius]

It's more like you go to Disneyland, only to see a "Closed for Maintenance" sign on a ride you wanted to go on. It says it'll be open this afternoon, though. You come back that afternoon, and there's a new sign, saying "Apologies, repairs are taking longer than expected, but customer safety must be our primary concern. We should be open at 5pm" Are you really saying you'd rather they just opened the ride despite it being broken, or would you rather they take the time to fix it properly?

This isn't a fair comparison; you're bring safety into the issue. Safety isn't a factor with WoW; the worst that might happen is they bring it up early, it bugs out, and they have to take it down again. In your example, the worst that can happen is someone is seriously injured or even dies.

In the real world, you say "Assuming everything goes right, X hours". And then when something doesn't go right, you've got a clear reason for the delay. Lying to your boss/customers to defraud them into thinking you're better than you are works fine, up until you keep setting that long deadline and beating it (why does he keep saying it'll take longer?) or they get a second quote from someone who gives them an accurate timeline, the time you'd have finished it in yourself if you'd been honest the first time around.

I actually see a lot of people do this in the real world. The difference, is in the wording. You're not *lying* to them. You're telling them a time frame that allows you to give them an idea and at the same time, give yourself some extra time to deal with any extra problems that may arise. That's a lot different than lying.

[twizter]

There's a reason nobody does this in the real world. When you finish early, you've now set a new expectation that you will always be able to finish that early. You said it would take 7 hours, you were done in 3. When you get asked to do it again, and say "It'll take 7 hours", the first thing your client/boss says is "last time it only took you 3 hours, what's the deal?"

Now they're thinking you're just lying to them, making up numbers to make yourself falsely seem better. And, if you fail to meet that new 3 hour deadline you set, they'll think it's just because you called them on it so you're delaying it artificially, wasting their time on purpose.


In the real world, you say "Assuming everything goes right, X hours". And then when something doesn't go right, you've got a clear reason for the delay. Lying to your boss/customers to defraud them into thinking you're better than you are works fine, up until you keep setting that long deadline and beating it (why does he keep saying it'll take longer?) or they get a second quote from someone who gives them an accurate timeline, the time you'd have finished it in yourself if you'd been honest the first time around.

you over analyzed my statement, i was merely repeating something i seen in star trek in the early 90s

[Abolishment]

I would really enjoy it if Blizzard was overrun every night by feral cats.

You know about the cats, right?

Let's just say, while you're watching the nightly fireworks, any eyes you see in the bushes are not animatronic.

At the very least, they're getting most of the big stuff out of the way right now, so this doesn't happen with Cataclysm release. Which would piss you off more?

Realms will be ready soon.

[Mortavius]

This isn't their fault, I'm not saying it's bad, these things take time and they work very hard to get it up and running. You should, after 6 years of WoW, expect this.

How is it not their fault? It's their game. I'm not QQing here, and I'm not trying to rage out at Blizzard. But it sure as hell isn't *my* fault. It's not yours. It's *their* game, *their* fault. Now, could they have avoided it? Who knows. Maybe there is no way they could, and maybe they are doing the best they can. I personally believe that. But it's still sure as hell *their* fault. Even if there's nothing they could do about it.

And to be fair, I've never seen Blizzard try and shift the blame elsewhere.

[Shellmagnett]

I've been in the IS field for 10 years and I can guarantee they've built in contingency time. You're right, they're often wrong, but consider the alternative. You get home from work at 5pm only to find you could have gotten home at 3. You'd prolly be just as angry. And no one is behind if they're sitting around waiting for the realm to come back this way.

And consider this... Blizz loses NO money when the realms are down outside of maybe paying for some OT. If a bank's systems go down or something they can't conduct business. Blizz does a good job keeping the servers up 24/7 considering they have a pretty minor motivation to be so perfect.

You can't avoid these delays... there's ALWAYS something they couldn't find. It's like saying you drove to work today and didn't crash, therefore no one should ever get in an accident. Computers aren't perfect... i'm happy they do as good a job as they do.

[Cocoa]

consequences and fault are not the same thing. there's nothing to blame them for, they're doing exactly what they've said they'd be doing. keep getting ready for 4.1 prepare yourselves for 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 and 5.0.1 and 5.0.3a while you're at it

[nwo]

My thoughts exactly as the OP.

If Blizzard would just learn from all their mistakes and all the QQ, they should just start overestimating. People will be happier to see servers go up sooner than expected rather than having them come up later because some people actually like to have plans.

The thing that really drives me crazy is all those times that Blizzard has extended maintenance by an hour or two for multiple times per patch. It's like OK, servers aren't coming up at 11, they will be up by 1. Then at 2 you see a post that they will be up by 3... then at 3:30 you see a post that they will be up at 5... Then at 5 you log on and see everything is buggy as fuck and you get DCed every 5 min.

I know this is not news to anyone but I'm just trying to say is that it would be a lot better for Blizzard to extend their maintenance ahead of time instead of doing it last minute.

[Aranela]

Also, remember - this is the BIGGEST PATCH EVER, they're practically releasing a new game. Give em a little break (not much though cause we've already been waiting far too long)..

AMEN! The world is being torn asunder! This is a huge achievement for blizzard and its a fairly complicated process. Updating the client side is fairly easy.. updating all the servers isn't. Computers can be fickle and complications can arise. I'm sure Blizzard is doing everything they can with as many staff as they can to get this updated and playable for us quickly. I'm sure they don't want to hear us complaining any more then they have to We have waited this long.. a few more hours isn't going to kill us.

[Uiryet]

This Post makes me want to go to Disneyland instead of waiting for cata to be ready.

I think the past experiences with patches is kind of telling you to expect delays, so I agree they should start out by making it 5pm pst but if you really thought it would be ready today at 12pm pst you haven't been playing this game very long or like me you wished it would be ready but in the back of your mind knew it wouldn't be ready.

[Mr. Smith]

It's more like you go to Disneyland, only to see a "Closed for Maintenance" sign on a ride you wanted to go on. It says it'll be open this afternoon, though.

You come back that afternoon, and there's a new sign, saying "Apologies, repairs are taking longer than expected, but customer safety must be our primary concern. We should be open at 5pm"


Are you really saying you'd rather they just opened the ride despite it being broken, or would you rather they take the time to fix it properly?

Your analogy is missing the part where the ride explodes in a fiery ball of death anyways.

I'm just sayin'.

[Thetruth1400]

they dont care because they know ppl will play anyway, they have no real competition, no other game has come close to wow , maybe when one does they will start being more mindful of pissing ppl off

This. The Bli$$ard of today isn't the same one as Blizzard that used to be. Either you can accept that and all that comes with it (poor service, mediocre quality control, etc) or you can quit. I, for one, quit and am awaiting to see if Blizzard ever returns to it's old self.

[Deleted]

Ya know... everytime they've extended maint I've not once been disconnected constantly or seen any bugs.
Well, apart from the inspect thing. Eh.

[Seadog]

Ya know... everytime they've extended maint I've not once been disconnected constantly or seen any bugs.
Well, apart from the inspect thing. Eh.

Umm , you don't play much , do you ? :P

[Clethius]

i agree with the OP ... i also have a few qualms with hot pockets... why, hotpockets, must your burn my mouth when the microwave says your ready to eat... and i also have a problem with pregnancy... why must only people who dont want babies get pregnant on the first try ... seriously pregnancy thats fucked up... also NES games... why do i have to blow on you for you to work properly ...

anything else anyone would like to add to the "shit people needlessly complain about list"